Enter: Leo Season, Stage Left
It seems redundant to suggest that this year’s Leo Season will be “extra” or “dramatic:” since when does Leo ever tone it down? Indeed, Leo is announcing itself in an unmistakeable way this year, what with the New Moon arriving the day after the Sun changes signs. But we’re also getting two bone-rattling eclipses thrown in the mix, one of which will be a second New Moon in Leo.
Somehow, this seems fitting for a sign that has a reputation for owning it, strutting its stuff, and doing everything with a sense of drama and flair. In Leo Land, it’s a far bigger sin to be boring than it is to sacrifice a little truth for the sake of the narrative (and ultimately, the entertainment value).
Leo is often associated with the arts, creativity, performance, and theatre, because on an elemental level, it deals with expression. Expression is basically what happens when you project yourself outwardly into the world, offering up a form of poetry that describes the shape of who you are. This is merely the followup to Cancer, which is more outside-in than inside-out — a dynamic that you can quite literally see played out between the Moon and the Sun. Leo’s ruler, the Sun, emits life-giving rays from its own internal source. Cancer’s ruler, the Moon, provides a receptacle and reflects it all back.
The shift from the navel-gazing of Cancer to the proud, confident strides of Leo is a lot like the dichotomy between impressionism and expressionism. We care less about the immediate perceptions we absorb from the energies around us, and more about the drama of our subjective experience.
Leo, after all, is all about the ego identity we assume to make our lived experience on Earth more interesting. Without ego or personality, we’d all basically be one undifferentiated soup of consciousness that has nothing to learn or understand about itself, and that’s because there’d be no duality to raise those types of questions in the first place. But to experience consciousness as an easily bruised ego that is learning to define itself through the constant soap opera of “other people?” That’s the real shit. That’s worth breaking out the popcorn for. All the world’s a stage, sure — but it’s also possible to deliver a performance so riveting that we awaken something in the people watching.
Of course, this is where we get into “Leo on a good day” versus “Leo on a bad day.” Leo’s abundant joy can be infectious. Whether they’re the stereotypical life of the party or a slightly more subdued font of enthusiasm for their pet hobby or “thing,” Leo folks have a persuasive way of demonstrating their appreciation for life. The light that they emit is often vital and compelling, so it’s not at all unusual to find a pride of lions assembled around their gregarious ringleader.
The flipside of all of this? A Sun that’s so blinded by its own light that it can’t see what’s around it; or a Sun that’s too accustomed to having everything else in the solar system constantly revolve around it. Leo can be self-centered, petty, narcissistic, and needy, just like Cancer. Except this time, the neediness stems from a need for attention and approval — not a hunger for security.
Keep this spectrum of possibility in mind as we make our way into the hot, sultry domain of the lion, because while confidence is a lesson we all need to relearn from time to time, there will always be a fine line between pride and arrogance.
This New Moon in particular portends to bring some aggro vibes to the party, highlighting the impetuous astrology of this bombastic week.
This is all going down at 0 degrees Leo, tightly conjunct Mars, which just entered Leo on Thursday. Whatever “new beginning” that’s taking form right now is colored by the aggression, sexuality, physicality, and assertive, action-taking potential that Mars embodies.
The Sun, Moon, and Mars are all square Uranus, which whips the tempest into a frenzy and makes everything feel hella agitated, erratic, and unpredictable. We’ve been feeling the restlessness all week, and now, we might resolve to do something about it, whether that means flipping our desk at work or doing something really rash and out of character — just to spite all the people who had us pegged for someone else.
Of course, it always comes down to how it’s hitting your individual chart, but we could all use some guidance from Leo’s playbook at the moment. Leo might not have all the answers, but here’s what it does know: the path to nobility lies in owning what you’ve got; always opt for peak radiance; do it from the heart, or don’t bother; and never settle for anything less than a “fuck yes.”
This post was originally published on 7/22/2017 on thedailyhunch.com.